No Need For Achika
By Galaxy1001D
Tenchi Muyo and all related characters are © AIC/Pioneer/Funamation. This story has been written solely for entertainment. The views expressed herein do not necessarily express the opinions of AIC/Pioneer/Funamation, the author, or this website.
Chapter One: Welcome Home
While Tenchi and the rest of his hyperactive harem were travelling in time, the brilliant and redheaded Washu was monitoring from her dimensionally transcendental laboratory in the present day. Although she had plucked the time travelers out of the past one by one, she waited until she had all of them before restoring them to the present.
Pushing a key on her holographic keyboard, Washu summoned a device that looked like a flying miniature camcorder. She leaned over and tapped the device to make sure it was working before leaning back to sit on the floating cushion she used as a seat.
"Hi there, Tenchi fans!" said Washu's nasal voice. "This story takes place in the Tenchi Universe TV continuity and takes place right after the first Tenchi Muyo movie 'Tenchi Muyo in Love'. As such, this tale contains tons of spoilers for both Tenchi Universe and the movie." The little genius paused, and then reached under her chair to pick up a DVD case and a Tenchi Muyo manga. "This story should be compatible with both the movie and the Hitoshi Okuda version that was published in the seventh volume of the manga 'No Need For Tenchi.'" She through the two objects through the hole she broke in the fourth wall and they disappeared without a trace.
Washu cleared her throat and continued. "In addition, the author is playing a little with the chronology. Since Tenchi Muyo in Love was released in 1996, it specifically states that the events in the past takes place in 1970. The author has decided to keep the actual year nebulous, and claim that the 1996 scenes happened 'this year' and that the 1970 scenes took place 'twenty-six years ago'. It doesn't matter whether you read this story the year it was published or years later. It is always 'today'. Observe." Washu pointed to a desk calendar that displayed the current date. "You'll notice that the date it shows is the date you are reading this, not the date it was published. Try not to worry about it, and everything will be okay."
"At the end of Tenchi Muyo in Love' our heroes left the past and the camera focused on Achika and Nobuyuki," Washu said as she turned her attention to a control panel and a group of television monitors that displayed various readings on time and space. "The movie really didn't show the group's arrival back in the present aside of one group shot that Nobuyuki filmed with his camcorder. This story will begin with the gang returning to the present."
Washu smiled as the floating camcorder stopped recording and flew away. She looked at the readings on the monitors of her computers. "Okay! It looks like the timelines are going back to normal! The mission was a success." She studied one screen after another. "Achika and Nobuyuki's memories have been erased… Tenchi's temporal readings are going back to normal. Everybody's chronological fields are stable… Yep! Looks like a job well done! Time to bring my little time travelers home!" She pushed a button and six figures materialized on a platform with six glowing disks on the floor.
Washu pivoted her chair to face the group. "Welcome home, everybody! I know it was groovy being back in the past, but it must be nice to home in the present."
"Did we do it?" Tenchi Masaki, a slender teenage boy, asked as he staggered forward. "Is it over?"
"Yep," Washu nodded. "History is righting itself as we speak. By the time we go outside everything should be as it was!"
"Well thank goodness for that!" Ryoko, a tall golden-eyed woman with wild cyan-white hair and a tall curvaceous figure exclaimed. Her large ears twitched and exaggerated her extraterrestrial origins. "I don't want to go through that again!"
"Yes," Princess Ayeka squeaked as she stumbled and held onto Tenchi for support. "Two trips through time were quite enough."
"Boy you said it," Princess Sasami, her little sister agreed. "Time travel makes me sick…"
"Meow…" the little rabbit with a cat's face called Ryo-ohki yowled weakly from child's arms.
"Oh, I don't know," the blonde and bubbly Mihoshi giggled. "I think it was kind of fun, wasn't it Kiyone?"
"What?" the teal-haired Kiyone was distracted as she was studying her surroundings. How long were they gone? Each time Washu brought her back to the present day, both the lab and the time machine were different.
"My mother?" Tenchi asked as he recovered from his temporal nausea and left Ayeka to jog over to Washu. "How is she?"
"See for yourself," Washu smiled as she pointed to a monitor screen in the upper left hand corner. "According to this, she survived, got married, had a son and died twelve years ago."
Since she was looking at the data from her monitor screens the little redheaded genius didn't see Tenchi flinch when she said the word 'died'.
Tenchi blinked for a moment then focused on his mother's chronology. After a long pause he nodded slowly. "Well, I guess everything is how I remember it," he said at last. "I guess no permanent damage was done…"
Washu looked up at him. "Something wrong, Tenchi?"
"I just wonder…" he murmured. "What if battling Kain hurt my mother somehow? What if she used up too much Jurai energy while fighting that monster? Could that be what shortened her life? If that's true, then it looks like Kain is responsible for my mother's death after all."
Suddenly it hit Washu. To Tenchi, he had just seen Achika, his mother, alive as a teenager just moments ago. Now that he had returned to the present, the woman he had battled so hard to keep alive was now many years dead.
"I'm afraid we may never know," Washu sighed. "You inherited your mother's power, and you turned out healthy. Without studying her directly there's no way for me to determine her cause of death."
"What are you guys talking about?" Ryoko called from where the others were recovering from their trip through history. "Is something wrong?"
"Nope!" Washu called back over her shoulder. "It's all good. It's all good here. I just want to run some tests on Tenchi and make sure everything's kosher, that's all."
"Okay," Ryoko nodded. "In the meantime, the rest of us will check to make sure the present is restored. See you." With that she escorted the two dizzy Juraian princesses out of Washu's lab.
"Oh boy!" exclaimed Mihoshi, who didn't seem to experience any dizziness from time travel at all. "Come on Kiyone! Let's see all the weird changes now that we're back in the present day! It will be just like the end of the first Back to the Future movie! I wonder if one of us is a rock star or owns an extra set of wheels?"
"Huh?" Kiyone had learned to block out her partner's ramblings to some extent. She was studying Tenchi and Washu from her position on the time machine platform. "Oh. Sure." She let herself be pulled by the hand out the door to the Masaki house.
"You going to be okay?" Washu asked Tenchi.
"Sure," the boy nodded. "All these readouts mean that I'm not going to disappear or anything right?"
"No Tenchi, you're not going to disappear." Washu shook her head gently. "Are you going to be okay?" she repeated, emphasizing her last word.
Tenchi's eyelids flickered as he understood her meaning. "Oh yeah," he smiled with false joy. "I'm Tenchi Masaki, the prince of Jurai and the hero of the galaxy. I can take it." His bravado left him as his eyes fell to the floor. "If I can't, I've got plenty of shoulders to cry on, don't I?"
Washu nodded in understanding. "You sure do. Ayeka and Ryoko will probably fight over which one will get to console you," she joked lightly.
"Yeah," he smiled weakly. "It's okay, Washu. I'll be all right, really."
"I know you will," she smiled with motherly pride. "You know where to find me if you need someone to talk to, Tenchi."
"Come on, Washu," he said as he took her hand. "Let's go outside."
Washu's mouth became a surprised 'O', then she nodded and got up to join the others in exploring the restored present.
Kiyone and the two Juraian princesses seemed to have recovered from their temporal dizziness once they left Washu's interdimensional laboratory and walked back into normal space. Sasami was tugging on her sister's hand while bustling around the kitchen.
"Look, Ayeka!" Sasami gushed. "The kitchen! The kitchen is back to normal! Now I really am home!"
Ryo-ohki plucked a carrot out of a bowl of crunchy vegetables and hugged it, making a happy meowing sound that somehow expressed relief.
Ayeka smiled and brushed a tear out of her eye. After the struggle with Kain, the purplehaired princess could scarcely contain her relief to be back in the restored present. "Yes Sasami," Ayeka gushed as she hugged her little sister. "We're all home, safe and sound!"
"Look, Kiyone!" Mihoshi called triumphantly from the couch. "I knew we'd find something different! The remote to the TV was under the cushions and not on the coffee table where it belongs! History has been changed!"
For once, Kiyone didn't mind her partner's illogical cluelessness and just smiled at her enthusiasm. "That's right, Mihoshi," the teal-haired detective humored her. "Nothing gets by you."
"What's all this yelling for?" Nobuyuki, Tenchi's father asked as he walked into the living room nonchalantly. "Did something get blown up again?"
"Nobuyuki!" Ryoko exclaimed as she appeared out of nowhere to put her arms around the broad shouldered man. "You're alive! I've never been so glad to see you, you pervert! Give me some sugar!" Before the confused architect could react, Ryoko kissed him on the lips and then laughed and hugged him some more.
"Dad," Tenchi smiled gently as tears appeared in his eyes. "It's good to see you again."
"See me again?" Nobuyuki asked. "What do you mean?" Smelling Ryoko's perfume and enjoying the sensation of the buxom space pirate's embrace he said. "Ah, who cares? Whatever happened, it ought to happen more often!"
"Oh Dad," Tenchi laughed, releasing some of his tension. "Don't ever change!"
"He doesn't realize we've been gone?" Kiyone asked Washu. "We've been gone for over a week!"
"No you haven't," Washu told her. "When the timelines reset themselves, you only lost one day. Now that history has been restored, there was no need for you to go back in time, and so you haven't."
Soon, all of the housemates, including Nobuyuki and Tenchi's grandfather Katsuhito, were comparing notes.
"That is an incredible story you told us," Nobuyuki blinked. "You went back in time? That's incredible!"
"It certainly explains a few things," Katsuhito murmured after he took a sip of his tea.
"So you're saying the amnesia Achika and I suffered from the explosion at Tokyo Tower wasn't caused by our injuries?" Nobuyuki asked.
"No," Tenchi shook his head. "Washu erased your memories of us so we wouldn't change history."
"Oh," Nobuyuki paused to take this information in. "That's a relief. Now that you're back, can I have my memories back?"
"I'm not sure you'd want them," Washu smirked. "When you were dragged off into limbo, things got plenty rough on you two. You wouldn't want nightmares would you?"
"I guess not," Nobuyuki struggled to find a loophole in Washu's reasoning.
"Grandfather," Ayeka asked timidly. "What things? What things does it explain?"
"It explains those two classmates of Achika's who stayed at our house that week," Katsuhito winked. "After all, it's not every day you see two beauties from another world on this planet."
Ayeka put her hand over her mouth in horror. "You knew we were from outer space?"
"Of course," the old man shrugged. "That purple hair and ruby eyes marks you as Juraian royalty, or at least nobility," he explained, "and Ryoko, your golden eyes and exotic ears easily identify you as a Burchardian."
"Heh-heh," Ryoko laughed self consciously. "We should know better than to try to put one over on you."
"Wait a minute," Kiyone said. "I thought you said that you erased their memories of us, Washu."
"Oops!" Washu smiled guiltily. "I guess I forgot to do Katsuhito," she admitted.
"Well, the important thing is that we are all here together!" Mihoshi cheered.
"Yeah," Tenchi nodded weakly. "We're all here…" he murmured. Everyone's here but mother…
NEXT: Watch the Cherry Blossoms Fall